Negan
by vixevilcat7
Summary: Just a one shot. My first attempt at a walking dead story. This is for my fellow walking deadhead. I know there's more than me who like the walking dead.


Negan: out of the cell

As the walking dead is one of my favorite fandoms, along with Harry Potter, I thought I'd try my hand at a walking dead story. Just a one shot, for now. I may add chapters and characters later but for now, I'm calling it complete.

Negan watched as his jail door swung open and his guards stepped back. It would be the first time in six years that he'd been outside of this cell, well, unless one counted the time Father 'NOT the father' Gabriel was so angry that he forgot to lock the door back. But, to his credit, Negan had willingly returned after realizing there was nothing left for him at the now dead Sanctuary. Now, it appeared that the Alexandrians were willing to give him another shot of freedom. He wondered what the catch was. There was always a hidden motive to everything, nothing was free anymore, especially not in this 'brave, new world' they found themselves living in.

"You've been assigned a house. You'll have a list of chores posted on your door. They will need to be completed every day. If you want to continue living outside this cage, you'll cooperate, do you understand?" asked Father Gabriel.

"Sure, I understand just fine. I've been let out of one cage, into a larger cage. True, it's all of Alexandria but I'm willing to bet, if I take one step outside those walls, without an armed escort, I'll be eating a bullet faster than I can say my own name, right, Father NOT the father?" Negan loved ragging on him, just to see how far he could push his limits.

"You men wouldn't happen to know where my darling Lucille is hiding, would you?" At their blank looks, he sighed. It'd been too much to hope they would allow him to have his beloved bat back. Michonne had told him she was still laying out at the tree where Rick 'the prick' had slit his throat. He couldn't believe they would just leave her out there. It'd made him so mad, he'd slammed his head repeatedly into the wall until he knocked himself out.

Soon after that, the widow had come in, breathing fire and fit to kill. He'd begged her to kill him. That had been his mistake, letting her SEE much he wanted to die. So of course, she let him live, to 'regret his choices', to 'live with the same suffering he'd inflicted on everyone else'.

About the only bright spot in his days were the times Judith came to talk to him. He'd help her with homework, tell her about the world before and listen as she talked about some of her concerns. For the life of him, he couldn't understand why the girl was drawn to him. The only thing he could figure was either he was the only jailbird in Alexandria or he was the only one willing to talk to her about her dad and brother. Much as he had disliked Rick for how he led his people, he couldn't seem to not talk to Rick's little girl. Then again, maybe the short period of time he'd sent holding the child while she slept as a baby had helped form a tenuous bond, back then. Whatever it was, he was glad to have one little ally in the community.

The first thing he did was take a shower and trim his beard. Then he went out and sat down in the chair on his porch. As he looked around, he realized that he was in the house next door to Michonne, Judith and little RJ. Just then, Judith came outside. Seeing him on his own porch, she scooted down her steps, walked over and paused at the bottom of his steps. "May I come up?" she asked politely. He waved her on up. She sat in the chair beside his. "How does it feel, being outside now?"

"It's,,, different. Pretty good but different. I keep expecting them to come running at me, jumping on me to put me back in that cell, to be perfectly honest with you." Negan said. Judith tipped her head at him. "Don't do anything to make them angry and you won't have to go back in there. It'll be nice talking to you without having a wall between us."

They sat there in a comfortable silence. It was funny to see people walk by and do double takes at the sight of him and Judith. Or maybe it was just him. More than once, he'd laugh out loud s someone w's so shocked at the sight of him, they almost ran into a tree or stepped into a ditch. It didn't help that every time he laughed, Judith would burst into giggles at them.

Finally after a long period of time, a familiar but unwelcome face came into view. Daryl Dixon came around the corner and saw them. He immediately frowned, evidently not liking what he was seeing. Negan didn't care. If the man didn't want Rick's little girl hanging out with the big, bad guy, he should have come around more often. Judith had certainly missed him enough. For a while, after Rick was gone, Daryl was all she had in the way of a father figure.

Of course, there was Aaron, Father Gabriel, Eugene and Siddiq but none of them were Rick's best friend. Some of them had fought back to back with the man but none of them went all the way back to the beginning of the end. None of them had met Rick at the quarry, back when he was still hoping it was all a bad dream. When he still somewhat trusted people. When he gave a brash redneck a chance to prove himself worthy of being in the group, in spite of his older, bigoted redneck brother.

"Hey, Judith, I was looking for you? You wanna go for a walk?" Daryl asked. Judith smiled and nodded. She got up and, surprising both him and Daryl, hugged Negan before she left. "I'll see you after while. Don't go away." She laughed. He smiled. 'The little stinker had him wrapped around her finger and knew it, too.' He decided he'd go in and lay down, catch a few zzzz's. There was nothing better to do. Tbere had been no list posted yet. He'd looked on both sides of all the downstairs doors. He was sure they would let him have too much leisure time. He went to sleep, dreaming about the good old days with Lucille, the woman, not the bat.


End file.
